Music breaking barriers

Hybrid Nightmares – Almagest

After their Ages EP tetralogy, Australian progressive black metal band Hybrid Nightmares gaze upwards towards the skies. Almagest is their new conceptual full-length album, and takes you on the journey of the Pilgrim, an unnamed automaton, going to various cosmic spheres in a quest to balance spirituality and reason. Basically, it’s a science-fiction retelling of many classical philosophy concepts. It’s quite rare that black metal bands of that ilk look to the future and out into space, although not unheard of, and Hybrid Nightmares is a strong quintet capable of putting this idea into reality and making it truly enjoyable for fans of black metal and progressive metal alike. Their sound is clear and heavy, but perhaps their most significant attribute is their consistency. Each track is as good as the other, despite how varied and unique each one is. Almagest is a real gem of progressive music.